Company news in brief

TFG profit hit

While Foschini owner TFG grew its half-year sales by more than 12% to R26.4 billion, the group’s profits were hit by cut-price sales.

Headline earnings were down 14.9% to R1.3 billion.

CEO Anthony Thunström said the impact of load shedding had affected store operations and severely dampened consumer sentiment and discretionary spending. Nearly 287 000 trading hours had been lost to load shedding in the first half of the financial year.

The group had to increase its promotions to sell excess inventory.

Online retail turnover was up just under 24% to R2.6 billion and now contributes almost 10% to total group retail turnover. The group launched an online shopping platform, Bash, in recent months.

TFG declared an interim dividend of 150 cents per share, compared to 170 cents per share a year ago.

Its share price rose 3% to R105.31 on Friday, but is down 4% since the start of the year. – Fin24



Richemont slumps after sales slowdown

Luxury goods group Richemont's shares took a large hit on Friday after its results disappointed the market. A sharp slowdown in its sales weighed on its profits.

Its half-year operating profit fell 2% to €2.655 billion.

Sales grew by only 6% to €10.2 billion (at actual exchange rates) in the six months to end-September, implying a sharp slowdown since July. Sales grew by double digits in the period between April to June. Analysts were expecting sales of €10.34 billion, the Financial Times reported.

"The period under review started strongly, beyond our expectations," Richemont chair Johann Rupert said.

By midday, Richemont’s share price was down almost 6% to R2 190. Its shares have lost more than a third of their value since May.

Last month, its competitor LVMH – which owns brands like Louis Vuitton- also reported a sharp cooldown in sales in recent months.

Richemont is sitting on net cash of €5.8 billion, which increased by €1.7 billion over the past six months thanks to cash flow from its operations. – Fin24



DStv owner flags hefty loss

DStv owner MultiChoice warned shareholders to expect a significant rise in its interim loss as it feels the effects of weaker African currencies and the costs related to its new push for streaming service Showmax.

The group said it expects to report a headline loss per share to worsen by between 233c and 229c to end September, and as much as fivefold fall from previous loss of 58c in the prior period, when it booked a R248 million loss.

MultiChoice, valued at just under R30 billion on the JSE, said it had to absorb a R1.7 billion cost as a result of weaker currencies, particularly the Nigerian naira, which among other things affected inter-company loans and the valuation of its dollar-denominated transponder leases.

The group was also hit by an additional R500 million in costs ahead of its relaunch of Showmax in 2024. The group has been looking to massively scale up its reach across Africa after teaming up with US media giant Comcast, the owner of NBCUniversal and Sky.

Trading profit is expected to be 16% to 21% lower than the R6.1 billion reported previously, it said, but on an organic basis - when excluding currency effects and merger and acquisition activity - it would rise by between 7% and 12%. – Fin24